With Prime Minister Narendra Modi by his side, Boris Johnson on Friday hailed India for being the world's pharmacy as he excitedly said: "I've the Indian jab (COVID19 vaccine) in my arm, and it did me good. Many thanks to India."
Speaking at a joint press briefing, the UK PM said: "We have discussed defence partneship. We also discussed partnership for health.. for instance Astrazeneca ... the Serum Institute, which vaccinated over a billion people against Covid. That has helped India to become pharmacy of the world," he stressed. The Serum Insitute, world's biggest vaccine maker, partnership with British-Swedish giant AstraZeneca to develop the Covid vaccine.
He also thanked India for a grand welcome: "My friend prime minister Narendra Modi, I would like to thank him... my khaas dost (special friend). We've had a fantanstic two days in India. I became the first conservative prime minister to visit Gujarat, the birthplace of Narendra. It is also the ancestral home of almost half the British Indians. I had an amazing reception. I felt like Sachin Tendulkar. My face was in big cutouts like that of Amitabh Bachchan. It was fantanstic."
The India-UK ties have never been as good as this before, the British PM had said earlier in the day as he was recieved by PM Modi at the president's house.
{{/usCountry}}The India-UK ties have never been as good as this before, the British PM had said earlier in the day as he was recieved by PM Modi at the president's house.
{{/usCountry}}The two world leaders touched upon a gamut of issues, including the Ukraine war, Indo-pacific ties, defence cooperation among others.